A WWII trip across the Territory

To commemorate Anzac Day in 2013, ABC Darwin retraces the route used by armed forces during the Second World War between Darwin and Alice Springs. Travelling by rail, we explore historical sites including the Adelaide River War memorial and Anzac Hill alongside veterans Lysle Roberts and Ray Hart.

When Darwin became Australia's frontier town and major military base during the Second World War, the route between Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin became increasingly important.

Up until the war, rail existed only between Darwin and Larrimah, south of Katherine, and between Adelaide and Alice Springs. The stretch between Alice Springs and Larrimah was made by road, with army tracks regularly ferrying troops and supplies north and south across some of the country's harshest territory.

The route was central to Australia's defence strategy, and had lasting impacts on the development of the small isolated town of Alice Springs, as well as the town of Adelaide River - an army and hospital outpost on the rail line around 100km south of Darwin.

Over Anzac Day 2013, veterans Lysle Roberts and Ray Hart retrace the route armed forces used during World War Two, remembering their parts in defending the nation, on the current rail line between Darwin and Adelaide - The Ghan.

Join ABC Darwin as we explore the war history of the Northern Territory by rail with Lysle and Ray.

Adelaide River

Only 100km south of Darwin, the small township of Adelaide River marks a crucial place used to support Australia's frontline.

Adelaide River was home to an army hospital and logistics support base during World War Two.

As one of the few stops on the rail line at the time, it saw the coming and going of many troops, including Lysle Roberts and Ray Hart.

It was also home to one of the highest concentrations of women in the Northern Territory during the war, with almost all women already evacuated from Darwin before Japan attacked but many nurses serving at the hospital.

According to military historian Dr Tom Lewis, the Adelaide River War Cemetery came about out of necessity.

"It's a bit of glum subject but people who died in the first raid and afterwards, they needed something to do with them because there wasn't much refrigeration in Darwin," Dr Lewis said.

"...especially for the 250 people who died in the first raid. They were buried first at Mindil Beach then disinterred later and brought back to Adelaide River."

The staff who died in the Darwin Post Office when it was bombed on February 19 are buried at the Cemetery, along with combat personnel and civilians who were caught in air raids.

The youngest victim to be buried at the cemetery is Robert Stobo, who was 16 when he died on the Neptuna in Darwin Harbour during the first attack.

"It's a very significant place, solemn but also in some strange way, uplifting," Dr Lewis said.

For veteran Lysle Roberts, the experience of returning to Adelaide River - now his sixth visit - brings back memories of his comrades.

As a spitfire pilot with Squardon 457, Lysle made his way past the township on his way to Darwin in 1943, after travelling by plane from Adelaide to Oodnadatta, then by rail to Alice Springs, truck to Larrimah then back on the train to Adelaide River.

The trip is one he would not care to repeat, he said, recalling that he refused to return from Darwin any way other than by plane.

"It was pretty primitive," he said.

Lysle served in Livingston in Darwin's rural area for 11 months during the war, living in a tent with scorpions and snakes.

"At a young age you didn't worry about those sorts of things - everything in those days was an adventure and you accepted that," he said.

"Even living in tents with humidity, flies, scorpions and mosquitoes, we put up with it because it was all an adventure and we got to fly what we considered the best aircraft in the world.

"The excitement of flying at that age overcomes any trepidations you may think about, but looking back, at my age now I would have been scared stiff.

Working with the RAAF, Lysle's job was focused on observations and training in preparation for defence to move further north into the islands above Australia.

He said many of the deaths he witnessed during his time in Darwin were not in combat, but in training.

"There were as many killed in practice and in trials as there were in the war."

"Of squadron 452 - our sister squadron - I also knew quite a few of them and there are a minimum of seven buried here.

"It's always an experience to come back and pay my respects to all those who were killed.

"It could easily have been me, time and time again. But somebody was looking after me. I don't know why but they kept their eye on me the whole time I was in the air force."

Katherine

Katherine was used as another major military hospital base during the Second World War, and despite being 300km inland, it also fell victim to Japanese air raids.

On March 22, 1942, Katherine was bombed by Japanese Mitsubishi Ki-15 aircraft that flew in from Keopang, Timor.

The attack saw the town's general store and low level crossing badly damaged and one man killed.

While there are no survivors still living in Katherine, RSL branch president Mark Hagger said the bombings had a lasting effect on the town.

"We certainly did suffer from the impact of the Katherine bombing although there's not many people left who actually remember it now," he said.

"But I think the fact that we had a number of military personnel based in Katherine during the Second World War had a big impact on the town itself."

At this morning's Anzac Day dawn service, Lysle Roberts and Ray Hart joined hundreds of other rail passengers and Katherine locals in the centre of the town they travelled through so many years ago.

As a 19-year-old, Ray passed Katherine on his way to Darwin to work as a wireless-telegraphist, supporting fighter aircraft against enemy air raids in the Northern Territory.

"The only time I came down to Katherine during the war was to get prescription glasses form the hospital to go under the respirator," Ray Hart said.

"I do remember it was a fairly large hospital. They were bringing a lot of the wounded from New Guinea to Darwin, then they preferred to bring them down here to Katherine."

Now set to head further south across the Territory, Ray said the experience of retracing his war history was bittersweet.

"It's been very pleasant...and It's making me think about my old mates that I was with during that time.

"I knew every wireless telegraphist on the unit, and now there's not many of them left. Of my unit there is only me and Bernie Conroy in Victoria."

Arriving in Alice Springs on the next stop will mark the first time Ray has returned to the Central Australian town since he stopped by it in 1944, heading to Darwin.

Alice Springs

Once an isolated desert outpost of 500 people, Alice Springs was transformed by the Second World War.

With women and children evacuated from Darwin by early 1942 - as well as many government officials and documents for safekeeping - Alice Springs became the civilian capital of the Northern Territory.

The Ghan was used as a troop carrier from Adelaide to Alice Springs, and played a major part in the transfer of up to 200,000 troops through the town during the war.

"It was always intended to be connected (to Darwin) but it was 100 years in the making and unfortunately it never got there in time for the war," Great Southern Rail 's Russell Westmoreland said.

"The town's permanent population was outnumbered something like 15 to one by troops staged there during the war.

Around 7000 troops were stationed in Alice Springs and at one point as many as 8000, with the task of supporting operations further north.

But at Anzac Hill, Alice Springs' iconic War Memorial, not a single name of an Alice Springs serviceman or woman is recorded.

"In the Second World War there was only one person from Alice Springs who served and he came back alive so there is no record of the fallen on the Anzac Hill Memorial," Mr Russell said.

"But they still feel very close the Anzacs due to the fact they hosted so many troops during the war."

Mr Russell said it was these connections that lead Great Southern Rail to initiate an annual Anzac Tribute trip.

"We feel very close to some of the communities that had such a big part to place in the war

"The Ghan was also a troop carrier so for us it became a logical thing to partner with the RSL, raise funds for them and increase awareness of what they do."

On this year's trip, around 250 people boarded the Anzac Tribute Trip to journey through the Territory's war history - many of the veterans whose first experience aboard the train was for their war service.

"It's very different Anzac day for them - they do the traditional things like the dawn service and the march but they also go to places of huge significant. It's a real buzz for them to have a holiday to the places they spent time doing duty."